


Foxy Dwarves

by Dragonsquill (dragonsquill)



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Ficlets, Foxes, M/M, Shapeshifters - Freeform, mentions of Dís, mentions of other dwarves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:54:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22778278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonsquill/pseuds/Dragonsquill
Summary: A series of ficlets about Fili and Kili's lives among the shapeshifting line of Durin, as they discover their own alternate forms for the first time.  Co-created with Linane-art!  <3
Relationships: Fíli/Kíli
Comments: 8
Kudos: 46
Collections: GatheringFiKi - Winter FRE 2020





	1. Fili

Kíli knew, of course, that his brother had to practice his alternate form daily. Everyone did, in the early days, and even a lot of the adults chose to spend an hour or so as foxes each day. But it felt-

Well.

They’d been together their whole lives. And now, just because he was younger, Kíli had finally been left behind. He wouldn’t find out what his fox looked like for another five years, at best – Fíli had changed earlier than most, which meant it could be even longer before Kíli would be able to run the forest with Fíli and their mother. They’d left for more than a month, as was traditional. Fili had chosen their mother as his Teacher, and she had taken him into the forest to learn about this new form. Kili, unchanged, was left at home.

Kíli sighed and curled up on his bed, feeling terribly lonely for the first time in his life. 

He was all settled in for a proper sulk. 

Kíli closed his eyes tight and tried not to think about what it must feel like to run through the forest on four feet, following the scent of small prey, warm despite the snow thanks to thick, luxurious fur.

Something warm pushed under his hand.

Kíli opened his eyes and looked down. 

Fíli blinked up at him. 

He’d always known Fíli would be a beautiful fox – while red was the most common color outside the line of Durin, which tended to silvers and blacks,Fili had their father’s coloring, and he had been a pale gold that shone with only hints of red. But he really was gorgeous and unusual, the ruff around his shoulders thicker than the rest of his fur, and his eyes the same blue as his dwarf counterpart. 

Kíli’d seen him, of course; he’d been there for the first change, seen the shock and pain in his brother’s eyes – wanted to help but had to stand back as Fíli’s body reshaped itself into his Other for the first time. But Fíli’d been immediately whisked away, and now, several weeks later, was the first time Kíli had seen him so close.

“What do you want?” he grumped.

Fíli made a soft noise in his throat and pushed at his hand again, making it slide down his nose a bit.

“You could just _ turn into a dwarf  _ and we could have a normal conversation.”

Fíli nipped his thumb.

“Hey!”

If a fox could roll his eyes, Fíli did; then he repeated the motion of lifting Kíli’s hand with his nose and sliding it gently down his muzzle.

Kíli sighed and gently stroked his fingers along the pointed nose, over his brother’s head, scratching behind his ear in the secret place Fíli loved in dwarf form, too. He was…soft. Softer, Kíli thought, than their mother’s black fox form, more silky. 

It figured Fíli would not only change early, but be beautiful, unusual, and pet-able as well.

“Aren’t you supposed to be off running in the woods and doing fox things while I sit here staring at the wall?” Kíli asked moodily. 

The fox’s mouth opened in a little grin, and Fíli wiggled up over Kíli’s crossed knees to plop into his lap. 

Kíli bit his lip. “This is cruel,” he muttered. “You know I can’t change too.”

Fíli could have changed back into a dwarf – of course he could, one form didn’t rule the other – but instead he pushed up and bumped his head against Kíli’s chin.

The fox couldn’t talk. Dwarves who changed tried on a fairly regular basis to explain how the fox form’s mind worked – how you were yourself and yet different, but it never made sense to anyone who hadn’t yet found his fox. Fíli’d tried, the first night, but it came out sounding like riddles.

And yet-

Another bump, a soft noise, almost a bark but not quite, and those blue eyes were looking at him with the same concern they always did. 

“…Are you trying to baby me? While you’re a fox?”

Fíli grinned – there was no other word for it – and flopped playfully onto his back, feet in the air. His back paws were blond, but the front looked as if they’d been playfully dipped in deep black ink, the only mark of the Durins left on him. 

“You’re not my pet, Fíli.”

Fíli wagged his tail.

“And you can’t just make everything better by acting like one.”

Fíli thumped him in the chin with one paw. 

“I’m still pissed I can’t change yet.”

Fíli lifted his head and gently took Kíli’s hand in his sharp new teeth-then bit down.

“HEY!”

Fili looked unrepentant. In fact, he looked pleased, and how Kíli could read his brother’s expression on that pointy face he had no idea – but he could and, despite himself, he laughed.

“Okay, FINE. I’ll scratch your belly and let you distract me this once, but never again.” Gently, with something that felt a bit like awe, he rested his hand on the narrow expanse of Fíli’s chest – so much more delicate than his square, muscular brother was in his dwarf form. Carefully, he dug in his fingers in a light scratch.

Fíli’s eyes fell half shut and, to Kíli’s extreme amusement, his left back leg started to wiggle a bit.

“Your leg never did that as a dwarf,” he teased, and Fíli’s eyes narrowed at him.

Of course, Kíli had never, ah, scratched his brother’s chest before, but that didn’t mean he’d never petted Fíli. Family members always helped with the maintenance of their jealously protected hair and braids. When they were small, Kíli had considered Fíli’s hair his personal property. Whenever they were somewhere crowded, their mother would order him to stay close to his brother – and what better way to stay close than to one long braid and hold on, despite his 12 year old brother’s loud protests?

“Oh, and when I do get my fox form-” Fíli opened his eyes and yipped, looking up at Kíli’s own Durin-dark ears, “-you’re going to pay for that bite.”

Fíli didn’t look particularly frightened.


	2. Kili

Kili's transformation came right on schedule. He'd made his choice for trainer clear for several years, just in case he was lucky enough to change early as Fili had (of course he wasn't, not that he was bitter or anything, because he wasn't, probably). And so the moment he woke from a lovely afternoon nap with bizarre vision and too many smells and thumped to the floor in a heap of -why are there so many FEET- Fili was sent for. 

Fili arrived looking cold-nosed and excited. He said...something, probably teasing, judging by the smile, but Kili couldn't pick up the words. It was just babble. He did smell woodsmoke-baking bread-sausages-something new as Fili knelt beside him in the little bedroom Kili had at their parents' house. 

Kili sneezed. Massively. His entire head moved and he was fairly certain he'd blown himself back a few feet on his teeny tiny too many feet. Fili grinned. Kili whined angrily back. 

This was so much more _strange_ than he'd expected!

Fili made those idiotic noises at him again (really, why did his people speak in such an inefficient way?!) and held out his arms. The message was clear enough: -let me pick you up.-

Kili considered playing hard to get, as a fox ought, but Mahal knew how many times he'd hauled Fili's furry self around, the lazy sob. SO instead he inched forward on his belly until his dark paws touched Fili's hands. His brother smiled, a show of teeth that made an ancient instinct fire off a warning in Kili's new belly. 

But this was Fili. Kili would trust him in any form.

Warm arms wrapped around him and lifted him with practiced care. The world spun around him, the ground suddenly too far away, new higher-up scents hitting his nose - dust and air.

He hid his eyes into the ruff of Fili's coat.

Woodsmoke and iron and Fili.

Tucking his legs close, he trusted Fili to take him out to the woods where a fox belonged.

\-----

He was a black fox. Of course he was. His feet were midnight against the thin layer of crisp new snow. A proper Durin. He turned his head to look at the long puff of his black tail. Very nice. He approved. 

There was a shift in air beside him, more nonsense noises, and then-

His nose twitched and he spun fast enough to tangle at least three of his legs. _-Fili-!!_

Fili's mouth fell open in a proper foxy grin, blue eyes bright. He shivered and danced back and forth, a show of pleasure and play that said, much more clearly than words ever could _-I'm happy to see you!-_

For the first time ever, Kili let out a high-pitched yip of foxy delight and, managing to get every limb working in tandem, pounced on his red-gold brother and knocked him to the frozen leaves. Fili huffed, barked, and twisted them over with a minimum of effort, knocking Kili to the ground and gently taking Kili’s neck in his jaws.

Kili pouted, but didn’t move, knowing he wouldn’t have a prayer against Fili, with his working body and all. One light growl, and Fili let him go with the gravitas of a much older and wiser fox. 

Then he grinned.

_-Run!-_ his body said, his scent, and then, _-Up up walk-_. He pushed his nose under Kili’s side and pushed. 

With great care, Kili rose to his black feet. 

He had a feeling _-run-_ wasn’t going to be on the agenda that day.

\-----

He was more right than he’d expected.

In the place of _-Run-_ , Kili spent a solid three days learning the art of _-walk-_ , much to Fili’s strange mix of _-slow annoyed hurry-_ and _-pride good-_. Mostly, his brother was his usual patient self, helping Kili to find the rhythm of moving each of four feet independently. But occasionally, Fili’s foxiness took over, and he would let go with a burst of speed, leaving Kili quite literally in the dust.

Foxes sneezed, as it turned out, with their entire heads and a fair part of their shoulders, and every time it made him lose count of which foot was next. He’d lie down and sulk until Fili came back, apologetic and nuzzling his nose for forgiveness. 

Kili had always been terrible at staying angry, and being a fox didn’t help a bit. He gave in embarrassingly quickly. 

Those first nights he was _tired_. Not quite bone-weary but mentally exhausted. Fili had set up a camp, as the Teacher was meant to do, complete with one of the old travel tents from the days of wandering, a proper fire pit, and a pile of warm furs to fight the winter chill. The fire made Kili nervous, and he danced around awkwardly as Fili cooked rabbits over it in his dwarf form, but the scent of rare meat overcame his fear and he curled at Fili’s side, demanding scratches as he ate. The taste of blood was new and strange, warm and delicious over his tongue, and he made a mess of his muzzle the first few times. Fili would laugh, and transform into a proper fox to lick his nose clean before they curled up in the tent, finding how their long bodies and thick tails best fit together, as they had done as dwarves decades earlier.

From - _walk-_ came - _scamper-_ , and with the order of operations as far as feet were concerned pretty well sussed out, Kili caught on to this one faster. He couldn’t dodge and twist and turn through the woods as Fili could, but he could keep his brother in sound, if not in sight, and long games of tag always ended with Fili slowing down just enough for Kili to pounce on him. They took their dwarf forms to bathe in the river, playfully scrubbing soap into each other’s hair, but as foxes they gamboled among the stones, splashing in the tiny waterfalls and whirlpools. 

Finally, after nearly two weeks in the wilderness, Fili decided it was time for _-run-_ . Kili hopped from side to side in clear excitement, bushy tail flailing recklessly. - _Ready run ready run-_ he yipped urgently. Fili’s mouth fell into a grin and he leaned forward on his ink-dark front paws, pale blond tail in the air. 

_-Catch!-_ he scented, and then he was gone, barely leaving a trace in the snow and sleet. 

Kili took off as well, adjusting his stride because feet worked entirely differently. He fell down three times, but hopped back up, yipping a call for Fili to stop, just for a moment. Every time, there would be the faintest rustle of leaves, a few slowed steps, purposefully loud enough for Kili to hear-then a leap, and he was gone again, Kili racing after him with his ears pricked forward.

It probably happened because he was focusing too much on his hearing and not enough on his eyes. Even given the acuity of dwarven eyes, especially in the dark, their fox-forms saw better thanks to slit pupils; but ultimately, hearing was their most important sense, especially at any distance. So Kili twitched his ears and focused in on soft sounds and movements as Fili slowed to a delicate slink around a copse of bushes. One perfect swivel and Kili knew _exactly_ where his brother was. Grinning with foxy pride, Kili leapt forward, a streak of black against the snow-

-that came abruptly to a stop with a flash of pain.

He let out a cry of frustration and pulled against the mysterious force holding him in place, keeping him from his rightful attack on his brother and Teacher, but he didn’t manage to move an inch. What he did do was send another shock of pain in his poor tail. It felt like someone was trying to pull out his precious hair.

He slumped.

There were soft steps and then, because Fili was an absolute jackass, a steady roll of laughing barks. _-Stuck stuck!-_ Fili giggled, and Kili raised his head to find his brother rolling on his back, feet flailing as he shouted high-pitched humor into the air. 

Kili laid his ears back and bared his teeth. 

Fili chortled and rolled onto his stomach, head tilted to the side.

Kili huffed as he realized what had happened. 

He was stuck.

In a _bush_. 

The thorns had grabbed onto his hair and held on tight, especially on his precious tail, and now he was trapped in the dirt with a brother who was too busy laughing to help him and he would _never_ live this down-

Fili transformed with a shift of air into the big brother Kili had known all his life. Clothes weren’t a part of the transformation, and if he wasn’t a dwarf, with his proper chest fur and long hair and layer of solid warmth over hard muscle, he’d have been in danger of freezing. But as it was, he smiled and cooed gently, folding his legs to sit cross-legged beside the trapped fox.

His touch was gentle, a scratch behind Kili’s ear, a gentle stroke. He said words that meant nothing, but Kili knew what he meant - this wasn’t going to be comfortable and it was going to take time. 

And, of course, that Fili would never let him live this down.

Kili heaved a sigh and pressed as flat as he could to the ice and leaves, chin resting disconsolately on his front paws as Fili’s careful hands went to work freeing him from his prison with as little loss of fur as possible. 

It took, to Kili’s estimation (never patient in any form) approximately forever until he felt Fili’s hands cup around him and lift him into the air. It was still disconcerting, but it wasn’t far-only the path to Fili’s bare chest, tucked under his chin. His voice rumbled comfortably, though his skin was colder than Kili liked beneath his paws. Then there was a shift, and Fili pressed warm lips to Kili’s head, just above his eyes.

Kili froze. If he could have blushed under jet black fur, he would have. Because he had certain, well there were, and they didn’t just go away when he changed form and-

Another shift and a soft nose brushing his. - _Safe follow-_ Fili nuzzled, and took a few steps away, looking back over his shoulder at Kili, who was surely a mess of gnarls and ripped fur and endless embarrassment. 

But Kili rose to his feet and followed, eyes on the fair form of his brother, and thinking busily to himself as they trotted back to the camping site about nudges and kisses and being dwarves while doing, perhaps, the exact same things.


End file.
